Lawmaker wants Pentagon to track civilian suicides

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

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Terry Gerton (0:09)

The Pentagon already tracks suicides among service members and their families, but it doesn't have the same requirement for its civilian workforce.

Now, a Maryland lawmaker wants to change that after five suicides in five weeks at Fort Meade. Federal News Network's Rachel Cohen joins me now with more on the proposal. Rachel, thanks for being here.

Rachel Cohen (0:28)

Thank you, Terry.

Terry Gerton (0:30)

Fill us in a little bit on the background here and what this proposal would actually require the Department of Defense to track.

Rachel Cohen (0:36)

Representative Sarah Elfrith, the rep for Anne Arundel County in Maryland, where Fort Meade is, wants the Pentagon to collect data on suicides across its civilian workforce, similar to the data that it already collects for uniform troops and their families. She also wants to clarify the Pentagon's definition of a suicide cluster, and require the Department to report troop and civilian suicide deaths that happen within a certain period of time.

Terry Gerton (1:05)

This is coming after those five deaths at Fort Meade. So what do we know about that situation?

Rachel Cohen (1:11)

Five people who were assigned to support US. Cyber Command and the National Security Agency died over the course of five weeks in June and July. Those are two of the country's premier cyber organizations. They have been running really hard over the course of the war in Iran. They run really hard regardless.

Much of what they do is conducted in skiffs, right? Windowless rooms, very, very mentally taxing, mentally intensive operations. Fort Meade has a lot of civilians. They've got about 35,000 civilians right now. And Elphra says that the deaths underscore the need to make sure that both military and the civilians who sit next to them doing these ops day in and day out have access to mental health support.

Terry Gerton (2:12)

What happens now when the Pentagon identifies a suicide cluster that involves military personnel? What actions do they have to take?

Rachel Cohen (2:19)

When you identify a cluster, it can trigger a series of interventions and support that's led by DISPO, which is the Defense Suicide Prevention Office.

But that process doesn't automatically apply when people are civilian employees. So you don't get that kind of automatic group of, you know, support services, epidemiologists, you know, the folks. It's sort of a package that gets sent out to whatever installation the suicide cluster is at. So the definition also is a little bit lacking. It only says compared to, you know, normal sort of military suicide rates. It doesn't specify uniformed or civilian. It just, it kind of lends itself to a vague comparing it only to troops, right? So, Elfrith wants to address that gap as well, and make it a little more specific.

Terry Gerton (3:22)

The military obviously has certain kinds of data that it can collect on its military people. Does it have the same responsibility and access for its civilian employees?

Rachel Cohen (3:33)

It doesn't, and partially because the law so far hasn't required them to. You know, if you look at suicide reporting requirements in things like the NDAA, the Annual Defense Policy Bill, it's very focused on troops and their families. So, there's not that same sort of mechanism in place already to have that data flow into the annual suicide report that they put out.

Many times, if a civilian dies by suicide, it's in their home, right, off base, you know. Civilians don't live on base, like many, many troops do. So those deaths get reported up through local law enforcement channels and things like that. So there's not really the infrastructure in place or the necessity by law to do it like they do for troops.

Terry Gerton (4:34)

So what kind of provisions are in Representative Elpheth's proposal?

Rachel Cohen (4:39)

So the proposal would clarify suicide clusters, you know, make it a little more tailored to include civilians. It would say, yes, you have to track all civilian suicides in the same way that you do for troops. And she also wants to add provisions for mental health providers to transfer their licenses so that they can practice in Maryland and on military installations more easily. You know, there's a lot of delays that happen with that. And so just because you move to Maryland doesn't mean you can immediately, you know, walk on to Fort Meade, which is a very, you know, highly classified base to begin with and start providing those services. So she wants to add financial resources. She wants to add, you know, resources in terms of manpower to help folks. It could ultimately be added to the NDA this year. That's going through the conference.